xiv, 440 pages : 26 cm

A survey of the current literature on medicinal uses of tropical plants, detailing the drug discovery work of major pharmaceutical companies as well as smaller-scale regional efforts. Discusses habitat protection, ethical issues and intellectual property rights, and the practical aspects of natural products chemistry, in sections on biodiversity prospecting, drug development, and conservation; and country and regional programs in medicinal plant research and health care. Includes guidelines for plant collections

Includes bibliographical references and index

Natural products and medicine : an overview / Varro E. Tyler -- Biological diversity, chemical diversity, and the search for new pharmaceuticals / James D. McChesney -- Development of pharmaceutical companies based on plant products : suggested approaches / Douglas Davidson, Peter J. Hylands, William Rod Sharp, and Roy W. Stahlhut -- Chemical approaches to the study of ethnomedicines / Domingos Sávio Nunes -- The contribution of the physician to medicinal plant research / Douglas C. Daly and Charles F. Limbach -- Conservation and tropical medicinal plant research / Steven R. King -- Higher plants versus microorganisms : their future in pharmaceutical research / Georg Albers-Schönberg -- Topotecan development : an example of the evolution of natural product drug discovery research / Brad K. Carté and Randall K. Johnson -- Shaman pharmaceuticals' approach to drug development / Lisa A. Conte -- Drug discovery and development at the National Cancer Institute : the role of natural products of plant origin / Gordon M. Cragg and Michael R. Boyd -- The Merck/INBio agreement : a pharmaceutical company perspective / Lynn Helena Caporale -- Biodiversity prospecting / Walter V. Reid, Sarah A. Laird, Carrie A. Meyer, Rodrigo Gámez, Ana Sittenfeld, Danile Janzen, Michael A. Gollin, and Calestous Juma -- Property rights and genetic resources : a framework for analysis / Jack R. Kloppenburg Jr. and Michael J. Balick -- Monetizing the pharmaceutical benefits of plants / Peter P. Principe -- Capturing the pharmaceutical value of species information : opportunities for developing countries / Bruce A. Aylward

Resource utilization and conservation of biodiversity in Africa / Maurice M. Iwu -- The economic value and potential for plant-derived pharmaceuticals from Ghana / G.T. Odamtten, E. Laing, and D.K. Abbiw -- The Rwanda experience in enhancing and commercializing the use of traditional medicinal plants / Luc Van Puyvelde -- The role of medicinal plants in health care in India / James A. Duke -- A standardized Commiphora wightii preparation for management of hyperlipidemic disorders / B.N. Dhawan -- Plant explorations in Asia under the sponsorship of the National Cancer Institute, 1986-1991 : an overview / Djaja Doel Soejarto, Charlotte Gyllenhaal, Peter S. Ashton, and S.H. Sohmer -- Medicinal plants of Mexico : a program for their scientific validation / Xavier Lozoya -- TRAMIL : a research project on the medicinal plant resources of the Caribbean / Lionel Robineau and Djaja Doel Soejarto -- Ethnopharmacological studies and biological conservation in Belize / Michael J. Balick, Rosita Arvigo, Gregory Shropshire, and Robert Mendelsohn -- Tropical medicinal plant conservation and development projects : the case of the Costa Rican National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio) / Ana Sittenfeld -- FENAMAD's program in traditional medicine : an integrated approach to health care in the Peruvian Amazon / Miguel N. Alexiades and Didier Lacaze D. -- Environment, society, and disease : the response of phytotherapy to disease among the Warao Indians of the Orinoco Delta / Werner Wilbert -- Medicinal plant research in Brazil : data from regional and national meetings / Alba R.M. Souza Brito and Antonio A. Souza Brito -- Community ethnobotany : setting foundations for an informed decision on trading rain forest resources / Elaine Elisabetsky -- Appendix: Manual for plant collections / Elaine Elisabetsky, Rachel Trajber, and Lin Chao Ming -- Epilogue / Richard Deertrack

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